2011 Autoreview Max Performance Summer Tyre Test

If a broken car is a sign of a good tyre test, breaking a Focus RS twice, then giving up and using a Sirocco R means the latest Max performance tyre test from Russian magazine Auto Review should be the best tyre test yet. Fortunately, it doesn't disappoint.

An ideal tyre test would take the huge amount of clinical data taken from the average German tyre test, and combine it with the glorious enthusiasm of the British tyre test like EVO. This is exactly what Auto Review have achieved when testing 9 of the latest Max Performance Summer Tyres, at the Contidrome in 235/35 R19. Instead of summarising the test, we'll go straight to the full results with each tyre summarised in excellent detail. For even more information, be sure to check out the full test (and brush up on your Russian) at Auto Review or just checkout a spreadsheet overview of the full results here. One final thing to note, the Russian magazines subjective scores were based on "ease of driving".

The Results

1st: Continental ContiSportContact 5 PTotal: 116.1 / Dry: 28 / Wet: 46 / Subjective: 19 / Comfort: 6 / Noise: 8 / Overall: 9.1Positive: High resistance to aquaplaning, great grip and handling on both wet and dry roadsNegative: Poor tread wearOverall: The SportContact 5P is a very balanced tyre, scoring strongly in both the wet and dry. The main achievement of the 5P is the excellent resistance to aquaplaning with excennelt braking characteristics on dry roads. At the limit of grip in the wet, the tyre starts sliding gently and only needs small steering angles to get back in line. The speed on the track isn't the highest, but it's not far off the leader, just 0.6 seconds behind in the dry.Misc: Tyre Weight: 9.6kgs / Tread Depth: 7.7mm / Rim Protection: 5mm

2nd: Pirelli P ZeroTotal: 113 / Dry: 27 / Wet: 44 / Subjective: 18 / Comfort: 7 / Noise: 8 / Overall: 9Positive: Great grip and handling in the wet and dryNegative: Low resistance to curved aquaplaning Overall: While the P Zero is now 5 years old, a second second place proves Pirelli are doing a great job of keeping it up to date. It's raw grip in the wet and dry topped the tables, with its only negative score due to a rather abrupt slide quality in the wet. The poor curved aquaplaning results left the P Zero just 0.1 points behind the 5P!Misc: Tyre Weight: 9.8kgs / Tread Depth: 8.1mm / Rim Protection: 3mm